2010-10-27

Tibet in Beijing 西藏抗議在民大

According to the LA Times Tibetan student protests reach Beijing. Don't make the mistake to believe that the news is about Tibetan students protesting per se. The news is that now demonstrations take place in Beijing, on the campus of one of the officially top 100 universities in Beijing, Minzu University 中央民族大学. It is the main University for China's ethnic minorities. The same students protested two years ago in solidarity with the Tibetans who were revolting in Lhasa. This time, this was in support of the 9000 protesters in Qinghai and Sichuan (not in Tibet) protesting in favor of real linguistic equality. The police "did not interfere with the protests." Very wise! Ignore them and pretend it will go away. The French government tried this at first, it is now sending unmarked police cars running into main school gates to provoke students.

During the summer, there were demonstrations in Canton about the government's plan to suppress Cantonese TV programs. It seems that local officials have backtracked and abandoned their ill-intentioned projects.

The LA Times adds that "the president of the university and teachers called them into classrooms and asked them to write out their complaints in Chinese." These Chinese students have obviously being copying French demonstrations against Sarkozy. But like many copies it's a far cry from the real thing.
Imagine the French students going obediently to their classrooms and writing a four-page essay about the reasons for their protests.